CPI-M objects proxy voting for NRIs; demands withdrawal of cabinet's decision

CPI-M views the cabinet's decision to extend proxy voting to NRIs as a threat to free and fair elections in India. It demands the withdrawal of the decision.

CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury /File image

New Delhi: Expressing strong disapproval to cabinet's decision of allowing proxy voting for NRIs, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) on Thursday sought the withdrawal of the decision. The CPI-M is apprehensive of the move and sees it as a threat to the free and fair elections in India. CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury, said that the BJP is involved in this issue and hence, is a "wrong" thing to happen in our democracy; ANI reported. "Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) who are working or studying abroad, and who can delegate their voting rights to a proxy will have very serious consequences for influencing the results of the elections," he said. According to the report of ANI, Yechury said that many NRIs, particularly from the state of Kerala, are taken to work in the Gulf, their passports are also confiscated and kept by the owners or managers till they complete their work and they are not allowed to leave in between. In these sort of conditions the owners or the agents who send them there easily procure their proxy and this is a very wrong thing to happen and will cause distortion of democracy in the country. He cited the examples of countries like  United States, U.K, Australia to suggest that India could also set up polling booth in embassies across the world to enable the NRIs to cast their vote. He said "The United States, U.K, Australia, and other countries are provided with a polling booth in the embassy and as they are the citizens of that country, they have the right to vote and can go and cast their votes." He also expressed fear of proxies being bought, with so much of money power in play. “We would like the government to reconsider and withdraw this decision,” Yechury said. (With inputs from ANI)